This invention relates to devices used to cure foot ailments and, more particularly, to orthotics employed in shoes.
The human foot may be subject to a number of abnormalities which cause pain. A number of corrective constructions have been devised for curing these problems. These corrective constructions are generally referred to in the art as "orthotics" and may be integrally formed in a shoe or adapted to be received by a shoe. Generally, these constructions are designed to meet the specific needs of a patient. As such, often the orthotic is molded to support the patient's foot and made a part of or secured to a shoe. The result of this specific approach is commonly described as "the space shoe": a large, cumbersome object, ugly in appearance. Thus, it is believed that there has not been until now a single orthotic with a generalized construction capable of relieving a variety of foot ills.
Among the prior art orthotic constructions is one proposed by Fukuoka in U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,054, a sole of a shoe intended to have so-called pressure projections to provide simulated finger pressure projections to provide simulated finger pressure treatment. Each of these so-called finger pressure treatment projections has a magnet therein, thereby providing a nonyieldable projection upon which the foot is intended to rest. The projections disclosed are apparently intended to engage predetermined finger pressure points on a human foot.
Richardson et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 1,778,002, provides an orthotic in which the shank is provided with extensions which are intended to act as an arch support. These shank extensions extend laterally from the shank of the sole, extending outwardly at an acute angle with respect to the sole. The disadvantage of this construction is that it requires a shoe with relatively high sides to protect or hide this orthotic. Furthermore, the wider or higher such lateral extensions are, the more pressure is exerted upon the side or arch, vamp, foxing, and quarter of the shoe, thereby distorting the shoe itself.
It is also well known in the prior art to provide orthotics comprising pads attached to the insole. These may be metatarsal pads, midtarsal pads, or heel spur pads, such as those disclosed by Riehle et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 1,867,679, Frese, Jr. in U.S. Pat. No. 2,959,875, Nalick in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,419, and Stemmons in U.S. Pat. No. 2,075,552.
However, the disadvantage of all of these prior art devices is believed to be that none is capable of relieving, at one time, a plurality of such problems as hammer toes, bunions, claw toes, Morton's neuroma, metatarsalgia, and the like. Nor is there provided, in combination, a sole construction and scaphoid pad which permits the use of the scaphoid pad in decorative open footwear of a sandal or similar construction.